Epilogue

Phlox sat down heavily on a chair, wiping his forehead. Wearily, he looked over at his patient - or better, his patients. Looking exhausted but happy, Hoshi Sato sat propped up in her bio bed, holding her new-born daughter in her arms. Lieutenant Reed sat on a chair beside the bed, leaning forwards, smiling rather foolishly as he looked down at the baby.

I'm just glad he didn't pass out earlier, Phlox thought, wondering why someone who stayed calm and controlled when he had to face several Klingon battle cruisers attacking Enterprise would work himself into such a state about something as simple as the birth of a child. And, considering it was Ensign Sato's first child, there had been surprisingly few complications, anyway. Nevertheless, at some points during the birth Phlox had wondered whether he ought to give the Lieutenant a minor sedative so he would stop pacing up and down the room, from time to time dashing over to Hoshi's bed, speaking to her in what he thought to be a calming manner. When he'd started telling her that most women survived the Cesarean, after all, Phlox had nearly lost his patience and kicked him out of sickbay, but Hoshi had only smiled weakly, saying she had indeed every intention of surviving the birth of her child.

Now, however, the Lieutenant seemed to have calmed down again. Smiling down at Hoshi, he carefully reached out, stroking the baby's black fuzz of hair. Hoshi raised her eyebrows in amusement.

"See?" she said. "I told you she was going to be just fine."

He nodded, never taking his eyes off the baby. "Can I hold her?"

"Sure you can," Hoshi said, smiling a little. Reed got up and very carefully took the small bundle out of her arms. He sat down quite stiffly on the edge of his chair, taking great care to support the baby's head, and Phlox felt slightly amused. He remembered how during the last three months of Ensign Sato's pregnancy Lieutenant Reed had shown up in sickbay again and again, pestering the doctor to tell him every little detail of how to take care of a newborn. In the end, Phlox had given him a big stack of medical journals, telling Reed that if he read those, he would probably know just as much about the matter as Phlox himself. And knowing the Lieutenant, Phlox suspected he'd probably read every single one of them, maybe even taking notes while he did so.

"Doctor..." Hoshi's voice startled him out of his thoughts.

"Yes, Ensign?" he asked, getting up from his chair. He walked over to the bed and checked the readings on the monitor above her head. "Well, seems like everything's just fine. How do you feel?"

"I'm okay." Hoshi smiled up at him and with her right hand she nudged Malcolm who was still looking down at the baby in his arms, talking in a low voice.

"Go on, ask him," Hoshi said. Reed looked up startled, then his eyes fell on Phlox.

"Oh, yes, of course." He cleared his throat, as if preparing to make a speech, and Phlox raised his eyebrows, wondering what they were up to, now.

"Well, doctor, we'd like to ask you something..."

"Yes, Lieutenant?" Phlox asked, his curiousity growing.

"Well, erm, since in a way you've... er... been part of this from the start - "

Phlox cleared his throat and Hoshi snorted. Blushing slightly, Reed continued.

"...well, yes, anyway, we'd like to ask you if you'd agree to be her godfather. Joanna's, I mean."

Completely taken by surprise, Phlox stared at him for a moment, then felt a smile spreading on his face.

"I would be honored, Ensign, Lieutenant," he said.

Hoshi smiled. "That's wonderful. Thank you. By the way, it's Hoshi and Malcolm, not Ensign and Lieutenant."

Phlox blinked and nodded. "Ah, yes, of course." He looked down at the baby in Malcolm's arms. "Joanna. Interesting - that name reminds me of my nech'wal."

"Nech'wal?" Hoshi asked. "I don't know that word..."

Phlox shook his head. "Oh, you wouldn't. Just some relative of mine."

He pushed a few buttons on the monitor, trying to cover up just how touched he was by the gesture. He'd been serving on Enterprise for over five years now, and while he did feel at home with the crew by now, he still sometimes found people were treating him with a certain wariness, especially new crewmembers. It was a wonderful feeling to know that there were at least two people who trusted him enough to ask him to be the godfather of their child.

He cleared his throat. "Well, then, do you want me to get the others? I believe at least the Captain and Commander Tucker are quite nervous by now."

Hoshi grinned. "Sure."

Phlox nodded, and walked over to the double doors of sickbay, pushing the panel. The door slid aside and his eyes fell on Captain Archer, Subcommander T'Pol and Commander Tucker, who was holding Sam. As Phlox appeared in the doorway, their heads snapped up simultaneously and Archer took a step forward.

"Well, doc?" he asked, looking at Phlox rather apprehensively. "Everything okay?"

Phlox nodded. "Everything's just fine. You can come in now, if you want to."

Commander Tucker brushed past him, then Captain Archer followed in a little more dignified manner. T'Pol was the last one to enter sickbay, raising an indulgent eyebrow at Phlox as she went past him.

Smiling, Phlox followed them.

"Aww, ain't she just gorgeous!"

Archer, Tucker and T'Pol were all standing around Malcolm, their eyes resting on the small bundle in Reed's arms. Trip was grinning all over his face, shifting Sam on his arm who was babbling away excitedly, poking his father in the ear.

Malcolm looked up, an amused expression on his face. "Hey, if anything, she's lovely. She's my daughter, after all."

"And mine," Hoshi piped up from the bio bed, and Malcolm nodded hastily. "Of course."

"Quite tiny, though," Trip added and received reproachful glares from all sides.

"Of course she isn't," Archer said, bending down to get a better look at the sleeping baby's face. "She's beautiful. Can I hold her?"

Malcolm gave him a doubtful look, and Archer grinned.

"I won't drop her, Malcolm. Promise."

Malcolm got up, carefully placing the baby into Archer's arms. Archer smiled down at her for a moment, then looked up.

"So her name's Joanna?" he asked, and Hoshi nodded.

"Yes, Joanna. He wanted to name her Victoria, but I..."

Reed blushed. "I didn't!" he said indignantly. "That was a joke!"

"Sure, Malcolm," Trip said grinning, and T'Pol raised an eyebrow.

"What is wrong with the name Victoria?" she asked and Reed blushed even harder.

"Never mind."

Sam pulled out a handful of Trip's hair, making him cry out in pain.

"Ow!"

"Victoria!" Sam cried cheerfully and Reed slumped down on his chair, sighing. Trip bit back a grin.

"No, Sam. Not Victoria, Joanna!"

"Joanna!" Sam waved his arms, accidently poking his father in the eye.

"Ouch!" Trip put down Sam and he crossed the short distance to T'Pol, flinging his arms around her legs. She picked him up, and he sat in her arms, turning his head and looking at Trip with a grave expression on his face. Trip rolled his eyes.

"Don't give me that Vulcan look, son!"

T'Pol raised an eyebrow at him, then turned to Hoshi.

"Congratulations on the birth of your daughter, Ensign," she said, mirroring Sam's grave expression. Hoshi smiled a little at her formal tone of voice.

"Thank you, Subcommander," she said. "About the crib..."

"That will be no problem," T'Pol said. "You can have Sam's old one. It is getting too small for him, and Charles was planning to build a new one, anyway."

Trip raised his head. "Oh, was I?"

T'Pol raised an eyebrow at him. "Yes you were. I told you we need a new one only yesterday."

Archer snorted, turning to Hoshi and placing the baby back in her arms. "Well, Ensign, I'm sure you'd like to have some peace and quiet now. And Joanna, too."

Phlox nodded emphatically. "Right, Captain. Hoshi and the baby need to get some rest now."

At Trip's disappointed look, he smiled slightly. "You can come back tomorrow, of course."

They left one by one, and when the door had closed behind Archer, Phlox turned back to Hoshi and Malcolm.

"I suppose you want to stay here for the night, Lieu- er - Malcolm?"

Reed nodded. "Yes, I'd like to stay." He leaned back in his chair, and let out a deep sigh. "Oh God, I'm so tired."

Hoshi smiled a little. "Me too."

Watching them sitting there in content silence, obviously savouring the feeling of the strenous part being over, Phlox nodded in satisfaction. All of his patients seemed to be feeling fine, and that was exactly how he liked things to be in his sickbay.

He shook his head a little. Godfather, he thought. Well, that shall certainly prove a most interesting experience.

The End

AN: Thanks again to everyone who submitted a review for this story... you've been all way too kind (at first when we had finished it we wondered if we should post it at all *g*).

So for the last time, please let us know what you think!